Dork Diaries 1: Tales from a NOT-SO-Fabulous Life

My 8 year old discovered this series through a library recommendation bundle, probably because I mentioned she likes graphic novels and Babysitters Club. My daughter LOVED these books and gobbled them up over a couple of months, reading and re-reading them. I wasn't paying close enough attention to the content but I didn't have a good feeling about them. Then I noticed my daughter and her younger brother using so much more rude language, talking back, and then my daughter got in trouble at school for name-calling with friends. Finally one day she got mad at me and told me I was BRAIN DEAD. I stopped her in her tracks and asked her why she thought it was ok to talk to me like that. She went to her bookcase and grabbed the first Dork Diaries book and that was literally the first line in the book, the narrator calling her mother brain dead. Then I looked deeper and no more of those books are coming into our house. I know the purpose of a diary can be to vent and express negative emotions with words you would not necessarily use out loud. I don't think 3rd, 4th graders are sophisticated enough to tell the difference. Now I have to back track with my kids about respect, materialism, kindness, and appropriate language and fight against the image of cool tweeny Nikki that my daughter latched on to. I have learned my lesson about not previewing a series like this for my kids.

Dork Diaries is centered in Nikki's crush on a boy named Brandon. The main character obsesses over Brandon, while neglecting her school work. The series sends girls the message that they need a boyfriend. It undermines everything we are trying to teach our daughters: to believe in themselves, and focus on doing their best academically.

I found this book at the book shop, so I read a few pages, Nikki is a complete spoiled brat. She called her mom brain dead because she didn't get her a phone, her mom got her a diary and she's thought that there's a phone inside the diary. She calls the diary " Just A Stupid Book ", she writes about her story, her crush, Mackenzie, and her family. She only cares about her popularity level and her crush Brandon. She doesn't even care about her grades.

It has too much brand naming and its all about Brandon which I just hate in some sorta way.My daughter had crushes normally but when I wasted my money on this book series she kissed a boy that did not even know that she existed , is this what we want are daughters to do?! this is a very hateful book and to top it off it was a ripoff of a great book.

This book is really bad my Daughter who is 7. She had a book fair and she saw the book and bought it with me.I let her read it by herself and hoping it would be great.She was done with book in 2 weeks and started acting a bit strange,I asked her if anything was wrong and she said nothing.The next day I got a phone call from the teacher saying that my child was calling names another child and it made the child cry.I scolded her and when she fell asleep I took the book and flipped through the pages and boy the language was just like my daughters which meant the book is a terrible influence, the next day I talked to her about it and she understood and we gave back the book.I think this is the last book your daughter should get.

The world already has too many problems and now this? No wonder some kids end up growing up like complete IDIOTS!!!!First of all there is too many brand naming what is this a publics discount magazine?This is aslo bad because Nikki thinks her family is horrible and brainless!!!This is showing your children to be disrespectful!!!!Another thing is that it is all about Nikki and Brandon this is so messed up!!And last of all Nikki cares too much about what people think and is OBSESSED with popularity and Nikki curses WAY TOO MUCH my daughter checked this out from the library and then when she read it out loud I was so disappointed and gave back the book the next day!!!

Shallow, vulgar language,inappropriate and complete lack of morals and disrespect.

Please read the first few pages before giving this to your daughter. The message of this book: girls are superficial, empty-headed, trite, social morons who only care about celebrities, pop culture, being cute, popular and worshipped by all. Yuck! If your goal is to dumb-down your daughter, and to teach her that all girls are nasty and only concerned with appearance, then this is the book series for you. There's nothing wrong with "fun" light reading-- but that's not what this is. Don't be mislead by the cutesy cover. Also, why WHY is the word "skank" in a book meant for tween girls?! The name calling is horrendous in this series.

I picked up this book to include in my upper elementary classroom library, and I decided to review it first to see what all the hype is about. I will not be including it in my library because of the language (like “crud”) and the topic (Nikki is too caught up in trying to be popular by having the right brands & look, not necessarily anything about her personality). I stopped reading pretty quickly because even if Nikki has a redemption arc (which other reviews suggest she does not) it could never excuse saying “seriously mentally ill weirdo” (page 24).

In 2018 I got these for my daughter's birthday, assuming they were more girly diary of Wimpy kid.y daughter was so obsessed with them that I read them and noticed; book 1 page 14 is very INAPPROPRIATE, Nikki is always saying cr*d and OMG I also noticed when Mackenzie gives Nikki an invitation to pass to someone Nikki says she felt like a very offencive r word. Everyone in the books are stereotyped and Nikki is obsessed with boys. I wanted to stop my daughter from reading these and eventually got a refund and I bought her diary of a wimpy kid which she now loves and I've checked them, they are much more appropriate. The point is don't buy dork diaries.